Nutty Caramel Tart

I tasted a tart in my favourite cafe in one of my favourite cities in Europe last Spring, Helin & Voltaire is a beautiful cafe in the stunning Djurgården park in Stockholm. It was a simple short base with a mixture of big nuts covered in a creamy caramel, it was simply fantastic. I have tried “researching” for a while what the tart was as I haven’t really seen it in Sweden before, so before I gave up I decided to just recreate it from memory. It worked out surprisingly well, and it brings me straight back to that amazing holiday with Rob. I’m not entirely sure if I was trying to recreate that brilliant piece of tart or if I was trying to grab onto that amazing city again….either way I love it.
If you have any interest, you can read all about our trip here.

This recipe is very simple, and quite quick. You don’t need to be too picky with the nuts, I find the fattier nuts the better as they are harder to burn and have so much flavour e.g.. Brazil nuts, Macadamia etc. It’s best to use nuts without skins or roast them off. For this time, I only had skinned almonds so I left them on, it’s no biggy.

Ingredients

Base
130g Plain Flour
40g Icing Sugar
85g cold Butter, cubes

Topping
290g Mixed Nuts (any variety of nuts you wish to use)
85g Honey
55g Brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 pinches Sea Salt
75g Butter
30ml Cream

Method
Arrange the nuts with skins on in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 175C° or 350F° for 5 minutes or until the skins fall off with a shake. Cool on a wire rack 15 minutes or until completely cool and then rub or shake off all of the skins.

Pulse flour, powdered sugar, and 85g of butter in a food processor 5 to 6 times or until you have a coarse sandy texture. Pat mixture evenly on the bottom and up the sides of a non stick 20cm tart pan with removable bottom. Prick the base with a fork or a knife to stop it rising too much.

Bake at 175C° for 20 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack 15 minutes or until completely cool.

Meanwhile in a medium sized saucepan add in the honey, brown sugar, butter, cream and vanilla and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in 1 pinch of the sea salt (add more if you like it really salty) and add in all of your nuts. Stir until all of the nuts are coated and spoon hot filling into the prepared base. Add the second pinch of salt over the top and bake at at the same temp for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes or until completely cool, caramel should hold its shape when popped out of the tin.

YUM!